LKL's Blog » Language

Intermediate French for Dummies, by LKL

lklawless — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00:01 +0000

Book sale: if you buy Intermediate French for Dummies between now and the end of April, you can get a $5 rebate – just download the rebate form and follow the instructions here: Dummies rebate

If you didn’t already know about it, my book includes intermediate-level grammar lessons, writing tips, and practice exercises, and is the most extensive (and, all modesty aside, the best) book I’ve written. Check it out at Amazon.com or your favorite bookstore: Intermediate French for Dummies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

lklawless — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:00:49 +0000

Here are some links to help you celebrate with your beloved.

French love language
French terms of endearment
Spanish love language
Vegetarian aphrodisiacs

Interview with LKL

lklawless — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:10:16 +0000

Freelance journalist Nadine Visagie of Suite101 recently tracked me down to answer some questions about The Importance of Learning French.

Happy New Year!

lklawless — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:00:09 +0000

Good-bye 2009 and the unnamed first decade of the new millenium! Hello 2010 and another difficult to name decade! I spent nearly the entire year in France, other than my three weeks in Italy, and I’ll likely be in France for all of the new year as well. Best wishes to all!

Here’s some reading material and ideas for New Year’s Resolutions for you:

New Year’s in France
French New Year’s Resolutions
Veggie Table New Year’s Resolutions

Merry Christmas!

lklawless — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:00:54 +0000

I hope you and your families are happy, safe, and warm this holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!

Vegetarian Christmas Menu
Christmas in France
French Christmas Vocabulary
Spanish Christmas Vocabulary

French and Spanish Thanksgiving Vocabulary

lklawless — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:10:23 +0000

Thanksgiving, as celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, is a uniquely American holiday, but you still might want to talk about it in French or Spanish. Here’s some vocabulary related to American Thanksgiving:

French Thanksgiving Vocabulary
Spanish Thanksgiving Vocabulary

Metaphors: More than words

lklawless — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:21:38 +0000

Just read a fascinating article about how metaphors reflect more than just the way we speak, but also how we think… and how we can be manipulated: The Boston Globe – Thinking Literally

English Blog

lklawless — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:08:29 +0000

My English site, e learn English Language, has information both for non-native speakers (ESL lessons), written in English, French, and Spanish, as well as a series of lessons on typically confusing English pairs for native speakers, (it’s vs its, affect vs effect, etc.) I recently created a blog to highlight new features – check it out!

Interestin’ readin’

lklawless — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:47:09 +0000

When I was at MIIS, a friend of mine taking a linguistics class asked how often I replace “going to” with “gonna,” and I said always. But then he brought up the difference between “I’m going to drive to the store” and “I’m going to the store” and taught me something that of course I knew instinctively: “gonna” can only replace “going to” + verb. When “going to” is followed by a noun, you can’t say “gonna” – you can only abbreviate it to “goin’ to” (which I do). Stuff like this fascinates me.

I’m sharing this now because I just read a pretty good article comparing Obama’s and McCain’s use of “g dropping”: Language Log: Emphathic -in’

LKL on Facebook

lklawless — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:54:33 +0000

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve started receiving tons of Facebook friend requests from people I don’t know and with whom I have no friends in common. I can only guess that my profile is showing up somewhere on theirs because we have something (most likely French) in common. Since it doesn’t seem right to “friend” someone I don’t know, I created a couple of other pages:

Learn French at About fan site, for people who love my free French site.

Laura K. Lawless fan site, if you love me for more than just my French site.